


Walking After You

by lovetheblazer



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: Dublin Kiss, First Kiss, Fluff, Glee Live Tour, Height Differences, Holding Hands, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension, crisscolfer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 05:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6040399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovetheblazer/pseuds/lovetheblazer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You’re afraid that you’ll lose me in big crowds so you always hold my hand, but now you just hold my hand when there’re only, like, five people around and I’m getting very suspicious. (Idea borrowed from this list of <a href="http://promptsfordays.tumblr.com/post/116244449490/height-difference-aus">height difference prompts</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking After You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ticklishblaine (lightsandsparks)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightsandsparks/gifts).



“Chris, Chris, you’ve got to see this! There’s the coolest fountain out in the lobby where you can make wishes,” Darren announces cheerfully as he bursts into the dressing room. They’re at the venue, killing time between soundcheck for the Glee Live tour and when they actually go on stage in two hours. Most cast members take advantage of the free time to take a nap, but Darren? No, of course not. He goes exploring or composes six songs or teaches himself how to juggle or one of ten other hyperactive things on his bucket list, because he simply does not know how to sit still.

“Darren, we’ve been over this - dressing room, knock first,” Chris sighs, trying to sound even vaguely disapproving.

Darren shrugs. “It’s no big deal - it’s not like I haven’t seen you half naked before.”

“Um... what? Since when? Because I _definitely_ don’t remember being party to that.”

“When you do Single Ladies - I watch it almost every night and you’re just wearing a leotard for that, right? Thus, half naked. And then you have that quick change afterwards, so...” Darren trails off, looking suddenly sheepish.

Chris blushes furiously. “So... you keep your distance and definitely don’t sneak a peek like the respectful coworker you’re supposed to be?”

“Yeah sure, I do that,” Darren nods, though he’s failing to suppress a grin. “Mostly.”

Chris groans. “Boundaries are important, dude. Not all of were raised on a nudist hippie commune or wherever you got your complete lack of modesty from.”

“Baby, I was born this way,” Darren all but purrs.

“Pretty sure that’s my line,” Chris grumbles. “At least on the show.”

“Anyways,” Darren segues, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet a little. “Back to the reason I’m here. Come with me, I want to show you the fountain!”

Chris glances at his watch, a little wary. With less than two hours to showtime, the venue is now open, which means dedicated fans are probably filing in with hopes of a glimpse of their favorite stars warming up. And Chris just really hates crowds, especially crowds of fans who have nearly tugged him off the stage and into the audience once on this tour already.

“I don’t know, Darren,” Chris begins, hating that he’s the one dousing cold water on Darren’s enthusiasm.

“Why not? We’ve got plenty of time to kill,” Darren insists.

“Aren’t there fans coming in now, though?”

Darren nods. “Yeah, I mean I saw a few, but it’s not a big deal. They left me alone and I’m sure they won’t bug you either.”

“It’s just... I really don’t like crowds,” Chris admits, biting his lip and staring at the floor so he doesn’t have to see the look of pity in Darren’s eyes.

Darren takes a step towards Chris and gently tilts his chin up to make eye contact again. “Okay, is there something specific you don’t like about them? Something you’re scared of? Like Chuck, he gets kind of claustrophobic and...”

“No, it’s not that,” Chris interjects. “I mean, not exactly. It’s more that I feel like I’m going to get separated from you-”

“Aw Chris,” Darren practically coos, which makes Chris blush furiously and panic at how that must have sounded.

“No, not like _you_ you,” Chris tries to clarify, badly. “Just whoever I’m with. But yeah, we’ll get separated and then I’ll just be wandering around this place by myself in a sea of fans, and I’ll feel like an idiot and not know what to do. And then I’ll probably start having a panic attack and it’ll be a whole _thing_ and I just-”

“Hey,” Darren interrupts, grabbing Chris by both shoulders to interrupt his rambling train of thought. “Look at me. It’s fine. I was just teasing before but if you don’t want to go, you totally don’t have to. However, I have my ways of making sure you don’t get lost, if you do?”

“Oh yeah?” Chris quirks up on eyebrow skeptically.

“Are you doubting my prowess, Colfer?”

“...maybe?” Chris shrugs, though he’s secretly intrigued.

“Fine, maybe a little demonstration is in order,” Darren huffs. He reaches out and takes Chris’s hand, like it’s nothing. It may be nothing to Darren, but for Chris, it’s enough to momentarily stun him.

“Um,” Chris manages, already anticipating the catch or joke or prank to follow.

“This demonstration requires a short field trip, okay? We’ll be perfectly safe, though, and if you want to leave at any time, just say the word and we’ll be out of there immediately, okay?” Darren explains, leading Chris towards the door to the dressing room, their interlocked hands swinging between them.

“If you say so,” Chris says softly, though he’s still perplexed.

“Cool.” Darren shoots Chris a smile and pushes open the door with his free hand.

Chris feels a prickle of nerves as they make their way through the backstage tunnels and towards the public lobby. He’s not sure if Darren has some sort of ESP or what, but before he can work up to full-on panic, Darren’s lacing their fingers together more securely and giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. And to Chris’s utter surprise and shock, it actually works. He instantly feels calmer, because it’s _Darren_ who in a short period of time has already become his best friend. He trusts Darren with his life and he believes that Darren will keep him safe, keep track of him in the crowd.

And Darren, to his credit, totally does.

The fountain is nothing spectacular from Chris’s perspective, but the way Darren holds his hand like it’s the most natural thing in the world more than makes up for that.

* * *

From that day on, it becomes sort of a ritual to their tour life: Darren, bursting into Chris’s dressing room, sometimes after knocking (but usually not) and Chris, feigning brief hesitance before agreeing to go on whatever weird adventure Darren has in store for them.

Darren lives to chat up all the backstage crew and find the hidden nooks and crannies in every venue he visits. And Chris? Well, Chris just lives to spend time with Darren. And maybe, just possibly, to hold Darren’s hand, too.

The thing is, Darren being the one to lead his way through the crowd isn’t always super practical. For starters, Darren is pretty short - not just shorter than Chris, but shorter than most of the people in the crowd. And Chris can only ignore that fact for so long before his inner snark starts to come out.

“I think the bar is over this way, c’mon Chris,” Darren beckons, interlocking hands as he begins to wind his way through the packed club that most of Glee cast decided would make for a good post-show nightcap. They have a rare day off tomorrow with no performances and no travel, and to most of their friends, that’s a fact worth celebrating.

Personally, Chris’s version of celebrating involves room service and watching bad movies with Darren on pay-per-view. Clubs aren’t his scene, plus he’s still embarrassingly too young to drink legally, at least for another three days until his twenty-first birthday. Sure, he has a fake ID. Sure, Darren, Lea, Amber, Jenna - they’ve all offered to buy drinks for him a million times. Sure, he’s probably reached a level of celebrity where if he ordered a drink, the bartender might not even ID him or let his age slide if he did. But that’s where Chris’s social anxiety kicks in: being told that it’ll _probably_ be okay doesn’t stop him from worrying about the consequences if it doesn’t go his way. He’s just rather not drink than take that risk of being humiliated.

Darren, however, is not about to pass up the chance to drink with his friends. He already had a couple of beers, but now he needs shots of tequila as he’s told Chris six or seven times tonight. And what Darren wants, he gets... that is, assuming he can even find the bar in the packed crowd of people.

Chris lets himself be tugged around for a few minutes, mind drifting as Darren tries desperately to part the crowd. They barely make it a hundred feet. Darren tightens his grip on Chris’s hand and pulls him closer. “Sorry, it’s an absolute madhouse in here. If I’d known it was going to be this bad, I would have gone along with your plan of staying in,” he murmurs in Chris’s ear over the throbbing bass of the music playing. It takes a lot of effort not to shiver at the brush of Darren’s lips on Chris’s ear.

“Do you even know where you’re going?” Chris practically has to shout to be heard over the roar of the crowd.

Darren shrugs. “I think Jenna said the bar was that way?” He gestures wildly in the direction they’ve been headed for the past few minutes unsuccessfully, standing on tiptoes as he tries to see over the heads of the crowd in front of him. He fails.

“Yeah no, dummy. The bar’s over there,” Chris laughs, thumb pointing over his shoulder in the opposite direction.

“Is it?” Darren asks, craning his neck like he’ll somehow have better luck seeing that way.

“You know, I appreciate your whole dedication to protecting me from the crowd, especially in places like here where it would be kind of terrifying to get separated from everyone. But honey, let’s be real, you’re a bit of a hobbit. You leading us through the crowd is basically the blind leading the... slightly less blind.”

“Hey now,” Darren pouts, leaning in and draping an arm over Chris’s shoulder. One of the few things Chris doesn’t mind about clubs is the way Darren gets even more affectionate when he’s drinking. He’s usually an equal opportunity flirter, snuggling up to the girls just as often as the boys in the Glee cast, but lately most of that affection has been focused on Chris, who is definitely not complaining about that one bit. “I’m not a hobbit, am I? Does that mean I’m hideous?” he whines, really laying it on thick.

Chris rolls his eyes fondly. “You’re adorable and you totally know it,” he says. Darren still looks hurt, so Chris reaches out and boops his nose to bring home the point. That seems to do the trick, since Darren grins widely at him.

The charged glance seems to stretch out for several seconds and Chris can’t breathe or look away the whole time. It feels like _something_ is happening, but he’s not exactly sure what that thing is. Darren being the quintessential San Francisco boy, raised on musical theater and not believing in labels, hasn’t made Chris’s dilemma any easier, either. Almost every flirty or affectionate thing he does can be written off with some version of, “that’s just Darren being Darren” in Chris’s head.

“You know what? Fuck the tequila,” Darren finally announces, breaking the spell. “It’s going to take an hour to get to the bar and actually order at this rate.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind waiting if you want a drink...” Chris offers.

“Nah, I think you had the right idea about tonight. Want to head upstairs? Order some dessert from room service?” Darren suggests, arm still slung tight over Chris’s shoulder and lips brushing against Chris’s ear again as he talks.

“Yeah, of course,” Chris breathes, trying not to let on how relieved he is. His anxiety has been ramping up since the moment they first stepped foot in this club. And while Darren’s intervention has kept it from reaching a fever pitch, it’ll still be nice to get away from the jostling crowd and thumping music. “Do you want to find everyone to say goodbye first or...?”

“We can just text them once we’re up in the room, don’t you think? Who knows where they even are right now...”

Chris nods his assent, though he can see Cory’s tall head poking out above the crowd on the corner of the dance floor. He’s sure Lea is next to Cory dancing her heart out, but much like Darren, she’s too short to be easily visible.

Chris stands static for a moment, waiting for Darren to lead them off to the nearest exit, but that doesn’t happen. Just when he’s starting to get impatient, Darren bumps him with his hip. “Waiting on you, kid. Since you pointed out that I’m blind in the crowd and you’re not, I’m letting you take over temporarily,” he teases fondly.

“Oh, _right_. I did say that, huh?” Chris chuckles. He cranes his head over Darren, seeing the glowing red exit sign in the far corner. He leans in towards Darren, tugging his hand and inclining his head in the direction they are soon to be headed. “Come with me if you want to live,” he commands, then uses his recently broadened shoulders (thank you, late in life puberty) to part the crowd and make room for himself and Darren to push through.

Darren must get the Terminator reference (Chris never doubted him for a moment) because he doesn’t stop laughing until they reach the elevator.

* * *

The rest of the tour flies by in a blur of cities and planes and venues and cheering fans. It’s a grueling schedule, especially coming on the heels of ten months of filming the show. The entire cast is in desperate need of a vacation, so they try to make their own fun whenever and wherever possible.

It’s Darren who comes up with the most enjoyable part of Chris’s summer.

As the budding relationship between Kurt and Blaine has probably been the biggest breakout hit of season two of Glee, Chris and Darren are given a short in-character skit to perform between musical numbers while the rest of the cast changes costumes. Chris adores getting the opportunity to work with Darren, whether it’s onstage or onscreen, so the extra time is certainly no hardship. Even better, the tour director is totally open to Chris’s suggestion that they be allowed to improv or embellish the skit occasionally to keep the material fresh for the fans. He’s kind of blown away that they are putting so much trust in a newly turned twenty-one year old kid to not screw things up, but Chris can’t deny that he’s also flattered by that.

It’s Darren suggestion, however, that has the biggest impact.

It starts after Chris ad libs a new line onstage and Darren very nearly breaks character, biting his lip hard to keep from bursting into laughter. He’s on Chris the second they get off stage.

“I can’t believe you did that to me, Chris!” Darren groans, though his amusement is still evident in his tone.

“It’s not my fault you’re a laugh slut,” Chris teases. “Besides, you mostly kept it together, so no harm, no foul.”

“Excuse you,” Darren huffs. “If anyone’s a laugh slut, it’s you. Remember how many takes it took us to get through that scene where I was playing drunk? That was totally on _you_ cracking up every time, not me.”

Chris scoffs. “Like you haven’t gotten a case of the giggles on set yourself.”

“You know what? I think this calls for a little wager,” Darren suggests, rubbing his hands together with anticipation.

“Oh? What did you have in mind?” Chris inquires noncommittally, though he’s certainly curious.

“Well, we’ve got a lot of nights left to change up our skit. Let’s see who breaks first. I think I can totally crack you,” Darren challenges.

“Not before I break you,” Chris insists. He’s almost offended that Darren thinks otherwise. Wit is totally _his_ thing, after all.

“Guess we’ll just have to see,” Darren all but purrs. “So, you’re in?”

“Of course I am. What does the winner get?”

Darren furrows his impressive brows, considering. “Bragging rights?” he finally says.

“Surely we can do better than that.”

Darren shrugs. “If you’ve got some genius idea, I’m all ears.”

Chris racks his brain for a moment, but no brilliant ideas are immediately forthcoming. Plus, he really needs to go get changed before his next number. “Not off the top of my head - I guess bragging rights will have to be enough for now, at least until I come up with something better.”

“You’re on, Colfer.”

* * *

If Chris thought he and Darren were close after filming season two of Glee where they were mostly sequestered from the rest of his cast mates shooting on location, it has nothing on how close they’re becoming by the time they’re wrapping up the United States leg of the tour. That’s not just true of Chris and Darren, either; the whole cast has bonded after a summer of the heady allure of live performances, long days of travel that blur together, and seemingly _endless_ singing and dancing.

Chris and Darren are especially close, though, even by the cast’s standards, and it would appear that other people are starting to notice.

“So, you and Darren are spending a lot of time together lately,” Lea comments over breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant one morning, her eyes laser focused in that way she always gets when she senses an opportunity for gossip.

Chris shrugs, trying for casual. “We all are. He’s a good friend, that’s all. We have a lot in common.”

“Oh? I mean... Cory and I also have a lot in common,” she says with wink. “Things like both enjoying making out together, for instance.”

Chris wrinkles his nose. “Ew, not while I’m eating, Lea. It’s bad enough that we have to put up with you two getting handsy on the dance floor every time we go to a bar or club without you bringing up you sticking your tongue down Cory’s throat before I’ve even had my coffee.”

“Like you’re one to talk about getting handsy,” Lea shoots back. “Pot, meet kettle.”

“Um, Darren and I have never kissed or anything even close to that, so I have no idea what you mean,” Chris huffs defensively.

“Oh please, you hold hands everywhere you go!”

Chris looks over his shoulder, suddenly paranoid at how loud they are being. And by they, he mostly means Lea. “Please keep your voice down,” he hisses.

“Then explain yourself, Christopher,” Lea presses. Her gaze softens and she adds, “You know I only want what’s best for you, right?”

Chris sighs. “It’s not like, a coupley thing. I just get kind of anxious in big crowds and Darren knows that. He holds my hand so I don’t get separated from the group when we’re in a packed space, that’s all.”

“Aw,” Lea practically coos. “I mean, I’m still not buying that as the full explanation, but it’s sweet either way.”

“Why don’t you buy that? It’s the truth.”

“Because yesterday there were maybe five people besides you and Darren chilling in the gift shop and he was _still_ holding your hand. He holds your hand on the bus sometimes where literally the only people are cast members you know, so it’s not like you’re in any real danger of slipping away,” Lea points out with a smirk.

Chris opens his mouth to argue, but he honestly _can’t_ because what Lea is saying is true. And it’s not like Chris hasn’t noticed it, too. How could he not? He just hasn’t said anything to Darren about it because he likes holding hands with him too much to want to jeopardize that or make the situation awkward.

“That’s just Darren being Darren,” Chris finally says. It’s the only defense he’s got handy.

“You’re the only one he’s holding hands with, Chris. The only one he’s made a summer long bet with and spent hours scheming over how to crack you onstage. I’m just saying - he spends an awful lot of time thinking about you and talking about you for it not to mean _something_.”

“Can we just drop it?” Chris requests in a hushed whisper. Lea is getting his hopes up and he’s not sure if wants them up, given that they’ve only got nine international tour dates left before they’re all going home and this... _whatever it is_ will probably fade. Going from spending every waking minute with Darren to not seeing him for days or weeks on end is going to be hard enough as it is without encouraging hope on top of it.

“If that’s what you want,” Lea grants. “But hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought?”

“Yeah. Maybe,” Chris admits. He has a sudden desire to be alone, actually, so he can think it all over. “I’m going to go get some coffee from the Starbucks around the corner, okay?”

“Sure,” Lea responds evenly. “Enjoy!”

And frustratingly enough, Lea’s voice is the one still echoing in Chris’s head while he wanders over to Starbucks and orders coffee for himself and Darren.

Of course Chris knows Darren’s coffee order and it’s totally worth the extra five dollars for the bear hug Darren gives him when he shows up at his hotel room door with Darren’s favorite coffee.

* * *

The moment of truth comes as a result of being in Dublin, Ireland, playing to a packed house with an electric atmosphere of reckless abandon as the cast members go for broke on the last night of the tour. It’s... an experience to behold in every sense of the world, and one that Chris will not soon forget.

But the only moment that _literally_ takes his breath away is performing their final Klaine skit of the tour, with both Chris and Darren determined to break one another and win the bet. It’s been a draw up until this point and that just won’t do.

Chris writes a poem which mostly centers on making fun of Darren’s height especially for the occasion. It’s a solid effort and he’s pretty close to cracking Darren, he thinks.

Then Darren kisses him and all hell breaks lose.

Chris is so giddy and dazed and drunk on it all that he stumbles through his last few lines; Darren literally has to reach down and pick him off the ground as the skit ends and the lights go dim. He takes Chris by the hand as he’s done so many times before and leads him backstage, folding them both up behind a curtain out of sight of the crew.

“You - you kissed me,” Chris manages, still feeling the phantom traces of Darren’s hands on his face, Darren’s lips against his, still hearing the roar of the crowd.

“I did,” Darren says proudly, giddily even; his cocksure grin can probably be seen from space. Chris wants to be pissed because he just lost their bet in a big way, but he can’t find it in him to care about that right now. Come to think of it, Darren’s grin looks... familiar. It has the same easy grace in the way he always smiles when he holds Chris’s hand, when they go on their little adventures together that have become an increasingly frequent occurrence. Which... _oh_.

The pieces are starting to come together in Chris’s mind now, unmistakably clear in a way they haven’t been for him until this very moment.

“...and you always hold my hand,” Chris blurts out before he can stop himself.

Darren’s smile falters for a moment. “Uh yeah, I mean... you’ve always said you don’t like crowds, right? Only wanted to be helpful.”

Chris could just let it go, could pretend that it’s all normal as if he doesn’t see what’s right in front of his face, but he... simply doesn’t _want_ to. Whatever this is, he wants to know now, _needs_ to know now, really.

“But you do it all the time, even when there are only a few people around. Sometimes when there’s nobody at all around but us,” Chris continues to press.

Darren breaks eye contact and rubs the side of his neck, a nervous tick that Chris has only seen him employ once in a blue moon. “Well, do you want me to stop? Is that what this is about?” he says softly, staring at his feet.

“No,” Chris rushes to reassure. “That’s not - I definitely don’t have a problem with you holding my hand, Darren.”

Darren glances back at up at Chris, looking relieved and grateful in equal measure. “Okay.”

“I...” Chris trails off, taking a second to summon every last bit of courage he has in him before he continues. “I just need to know why?”

Darren frowns. “Why what?”

“Why you always hold my hand. Why you kissed me tonight. I need to know if it’s because you... _want_ to? Or...”

“Or?” Darren presses. Chris feels like sighing in frustration, but he resists the urge. Darren really isn’t making things easy on him.

“...or if I’m just reading too much into things or making it all up in my head?” Chris shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t have-”

“No, you should have. I’m glad you did, actually,” Darren interrupts, taking a very deliberate step towards Chris. “Yes. Yes, I wanted to kiss you. Yes, I wanted to hold your hand. Yes, I’m pretty much always looking for excuses to touch you, because well... I want to be close to you.”

“Oh,” Chris breathes, heart racing and overwhelmed at how near Darren is. “Like, even right now?”

“ _Especially_ right now,” Darren whispers.

Chris swallows hard and then looks Darren right in the eyes. “Then what’s stopping you?”

Darren’s eyes widen in surprise and then he’s leaning in with intent, hands cupping Chris’s face for the second time that evening.

Chris’s brain is overwhelmed with all the new information, trying desperately to take in everything simultaneously. There’s a part of his mind that tells him: _this is your first real kiss with Darren, you need to memorize every second of it_ , but that’s quickly discarded when he realizes that kissing Darren here and now, in the drafty backstage area of the Dublin venue, is remarkably similar to the kiss they shared onstage, only... _more_. More tongue, more contact, more desire, already curling low in Chris’s belly at the way Darren takes control.

Pretty quickly, Chris decides that maybe it’s _his_ turn to be in control and then he’s cupping the back of Darren’s neck with one hand and using his grip to reel him in a little, making their height difference work to full advantage. It’s just... good and immediate and real, and Chris isn’t sure why it took him so long to figure this out because Darren’s basically been making stupid excuses to hold his hand all summer. He’s been making silly bets and schemes to make him laugh onstage. He’s literally spent hours skulking around various venues to watch Chris dance from the audience night after night after night. And wow, Chris might be the biggest idiot of all for not seeing what was literally staring him right in the face. He kind of has to laugh at his own obliviousness and then he actually _is_ , and Darren is pulling back with a puzzled grin.

“Um, problem?” Darren asks and Chris kind of wants to kiss him again at how low and gravelly his voice comes out, just from that little bit of making out.

“No, no, I just...” Chris cuts off, still giggling. “I was just thinking about what an idiot I’ve been all summer. We’ve both been so _dumb_ , oh my god.”

“Hey now, no need to name call,” Darren scolds, though there’s no heat behind it. “Dumb how?”

“Well, you’ve been all mooning over me but you didn’t just like, actually say anything and I’m the most clueless person ever for not seeing it because it was so obvious, wow,” Chris manages between helpless fits of laughter.

“I thought I was being pretty clear, yeah. I don’t disagree with your assessment of the situation necessarily,” Darren admits. “But I guess the important thing is we got there eventually?”

“Took us long enough,” Chris grins.

“It’s not about the destination but the journey,” Darren intones wistfully.

Chris shakes his head. “Dork.”

“Yeah, but I’m _your_ dork now,” Darren points out, beaming.

“Guess so. Whatever have I gotten myself into?”

Darren grabs his hand and laces their fingers together, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Definitely an adventure.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, I'd love to hear what you think of the story if you feel so inclined to share ;)
> 
> [Share Fic on Tumblr](http://lovetheblazer.tumblr.com/post/139468728780/walking-after-you)


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